Now, a near-infrared light headband to nail all your lies

London, September 23 : Drexel University researchers in Philadelphia have designed a lie-detecting headband that uses near-infrared light to test whether a person is fibbing or not.

Scott Bunce, who led the project at the university's College of Medicine, has revealed that the band shines near-infrared light through skin and skull, onto blood circulating in the brain, for the purpose.

The researcher says that the amount of light reflected back indicates how much oxygen is present, and hence the brain's activity.

He believes that the new way of scanning brain activity may be more reliable than the lie detectors currently used by security services across the world.

Bunce insists that his approach gives a detailed picture of real-time activity within the brain that can be used to determine whether the subject is lying, reports New Scientist magazine.

He says that the technique is both cheaper and easier to apply than fMRI, and gives a higher resolution than an EEG.

According to him, a similar approach is being used to investigate Alzheimer's disease.